***THIS RULESET IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE DURING SEASON 1 AS WE WORK OUT ALL THE KINKS AND NEW ADDITIONS/DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MADDEN 12/13.***

I: Gameplay

I.A: Exploits

1. Illegal Plays: Nano Blitzing, Motioning Outward* or Mid-Motion Behind the Offensive Line Hiking, "rocket catching" (not the animation catches) Zigzagging your S/LBs to wiggle through the line (That fucks with the AI and you dummies know that), Pulling guys off the line on punt returns.

*Motioning Outward: All motioning must be INWARD or Left to Right/Right to Left. NO Left side Left Motion or Right side Right Motion. (unless player comes to a complete stop for example: Motioning a left side TE to the left slot and he stops at the LOS.) All motioning OUT OF THE BACKFIELD must come to a complete stop BEFORE HIKING or it is illegal.

2. Illegal Subs: No SS @ LB, CB @ WR or WR @ CB, 2a. You MAY play a CB @ S. However, at ALL times you must be playing one Safety at the Safety position, Free or Strong---doesn't matter.

3. No running your manually controlled defensive player around pre-snap to build up his acceleration.

+Manually moving LBs around to reflect pass coverage or to a different spot on the field is fine, However when you're building up the players acceleration in preparation to jump through a gap/gain a step on the set lineman--thats where the problem lies. You may move your players around on the field prior to the snap but at the snap, they should be set to avoid any suspect issues of building up ones acceleration to gain an advantage.

4. No manually pulling the d-line to run around into coverage (DE or DT or any LB @ DE or DE @ DT). Hot route hook zones and man coverage is okay if the AI is controller, but manually controlling a DE or DT to instantly drop into coverage is illegal

I.B: Sportsmanship

1. Cutthroat: If an opponent disconnects and you are able to take a win at ANY time the game allows, you are free to do so.

2. Grieving: If an opponent disconnects for “grieving” then you must quote the commish for further action, but you also must have a screen shot showing the opponent was actually kicked for grieving before I do anything about it. Also at this time, please also present the situation of the game (Score, Quarter,Time Left, Down/Distance). This will be decided on a case by case basis as its clear to me that the whole "kicked for grieving" seems to be a bit more broad than it was in Madden 12.

3. Don't Be An Asshole: There is no reason to be running up the score on teams just because you can. You may play a game against an opponent significantly worse than you are so simply play the game with class. If it gets out of hand then simply drain the clock and get it over with. This is something that shouldn't have to be reiterated but the fact of the matter is, it does.

4. I know we all hate each other, but please show some respect to your opponent. At the end of the day if I feel it is getting too personal over who won a video game. Things are going to get heated at times but try to keep it mellow because if someone elects to report you and a mod takes it into his own hands, not much I can do for you at that point so please, keep that in mind.

5. 4th Down Rule

1) You may go for it on 4th down at any point of the game when you are past your own 45 yard line.
2) You may go for it on 4th down in the second half with 3:00 left in the 3rd quarter through the rest of the game if you are losing from anywhere on the field

6. Quitting Out

DO NOT QUIT

I repeat, DO NOT QUIT OUT. Madden 13 has decided to change it so that if you quit out of a game, you're opponent will NOT get the win/xp etc. It has to be replayed. That should be common knowledge to the league by now. If you are getting stomped then just stick with it and take your loss. If you have ANY complaints after the game and wish to have them addressed then please do that after the game while bringing any proof to the table at that time and it will be dealt with.

Now if you QUIT out of a game and don't have some excellent excuse then you're opponent will get the CPU but your team will also be BOOTED for the week (not autopilot) so you will lose coaching XP. It's annoying to have people quit and force the other team to have to play all over again.

If you have an issue with the game (i.e. the other team running it up or whatever it might be) then bring any and all evidence at the games conclusion and I will handle it.

II. Trading:

1. All trades must be discussed publicly in the official league thread.

2. There is NO limit on the number of trades you may complete per season with the new salary cap function being added.

3. You are now able to trade draft picks. With the new Madden 13 scouting feature, you might be able to find a late round/low overall gem so with that being said, all draft picks are eligible to be dealt this season.

II.B Free Agency

Free Agency is OPEN.

Quote:

Offseason Free Agency Issue

We have found an issue with some players entering free agency on their own without the teams owner getting even a shot to negotiate with them prior to them declaring for free agency. For Season 1's offseason, these players will only be bidded on by their original team.

Going forward for Season 2's offseason and beyond the following measure/proactive approach MUST be taken or else there will be nothing done in the future.

Around Week 16-17, EVERY owner should look at their expiring contracts and see who is up after the season and who you have not been prompted to resign. Take a screenshot of the "salary cap" section where it shows that "x" player only has one year remaining. After that, I ask that you goto the resign players screen and take a picture of that screen as well so that I can verify that you did have negotiations with said player and were turned down.

After getting those two pieces of evidence, I ask you PM me the name of the player with the photos attached and once verified, it will be worked in the offseason so that you may resign the player.

Failure to follow this rule from Season 2 onward will result in said player being available in free agency

DRAFTING:

1. I've noticed a good number of games having to be simmed in Season 1 and its usually the same suspect(s). As a counter to that, I am putting a rule in effect that was around in Madden 12 and is back for Madden 13.

If you have more than four games simmed or a game in which your opponent played the CPU, you will be unable to draft the following year. You will still get draft picks but you cannot select them. Prior to the draft, I will put your team on auto pilot and the CPU will draft for you. So you won't be affected by not getting players but rather not the ones you were gunning for.

Please make sure you have time for this league. It's not fair to others that do make time for their games. If you don't have the time then I ask you please step down so I can fill your team with an owner who does have the time.

1. This is simple. Be mature about what you say and do. No posting peoples personal information/photos/dick pix without their prior approval. We’re all grown up here, lets act like it.

III.A Broadcasting Games

1. There is to be no public broadcasting of games via Justin.TV, Stickam, Skype---whatever without approval from BOTH participants in the said game, period. You may post clips/games after it has been completed but as stated, are not allowed to live stream games without the consent of your opponent.

IV. Punishments

Will be dealt with on a case by case basis as they arise.

VI. Advancements

Advancements are EVERY 72 hours. However there are a few exceptions to this rule:
Advancements are EVERY 48 hours for playoff rounds.

a. League will advance if ALL games are in prior to the 72 hour rule

b. League will advance if ALL games are in with the exception of one or two, this happens in the event there has been very little/no attempt at contacting/scheduling with each other in this thread. This thread is used as a monitor to see who's active and who isn't. If you make very little attempt to schedule/play your game, the rest of the league will not be waiting on you and we will advance.

The best way to avoid this from happening is to set a concrete time with your opponent as soon as possible. Even if its 48 hours later. If you set up a time and both agree to something, the league will wait for you. However, if it comes to be the last game and there has been little to no attempt to schedule the game, I'm not going to hold up the rest of the league.

c. User/CPU games are NEVER going to be the last game. If they are, it gets advanced---period.

d. If one user makes a solid attempt to contact his opponent and gets very little cooperation in return via no contact or piss poor scheduling times, the user who made the attempt(s) will get to play the CPU. IE: The 24 hour rule.

e. If you are going out of town for a few days/weekend/week or whatever then you MUST place your team on autopilot. It's easy to do so there should be no excuses. If you fail to do this and leave it up to me to have to do for you, I will boot your team and reinvite you. I will NOT put it on autopilot for you. You will lose your coaching XP for failing to set up your team on autopilot prior to leaving. I find it incredibly obnoxious that you can't take the few minutes it'll take to fire up your xbox and do it and just expect me to do it for you.

I will make exceptions to this rule in the event of an emergency on a case by case basis. Inquire within if this happens but if you just forget or are too lazy to do it then you'll have to take the hit in coaching xp loss.

IMPORTANT ADDITION: DURING THE RE-SIGNING PHASE, IT IS YOUR JOB TO CHECK YOUR ROSTER AND ENSURE YOU ARE HAVE 45 PLAYERS OR MORE, NO LESS

WHEN: Immediately After Super Bowl

WHAT: Advanced to Re-Signing Period

--In this stage, you will be able to negotiate new contracts with the guys on your team that have expiring deals. You get this one opportunity before they hit the open market and any team is free to bid on the said player.

BE AWARE: You only get one shot during this stage. If you offer someone a contract they deem unacceptable, there is no second chance to offer another one. They will decline it and go straight to free agency. So make sure if you have a pending free agent that you want to keep that you offer them a fair market deal (maybe even exceeding it).

If the player you wish to negotiate with has a status that reads “unavailable” the its unfortunately too late, they have already decided to go the route of free agency and you will have to compete for their services with the other 31 teams.

After offering a contract to a player, you should be able to hit "B" to backup out of the re-signing screen back to your task console and it will show instantly if they've accepted your offer or opted for free agency.

You will have 24 hours from the time I advanced it to this stage to renegotiate with your players.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

During this stage you will be able to put in bids on Free Agents, pretty simple. If you don't have the cap space to bid on a particular player, the game will notify you and you'll have to make roster adjustments to do so, if you wish.

This year's game features LIVE free agent bidding. So you may bid on players and anytime another team bids on a player, you'll be able to see all the interested teams that are vying for that players services.

If you make an offer to a free agent that you'd like to take back off the table for whatever reasons you might have, then you are also able to do that by going to the free agent section and using the RT button to find "MY NEGOTIATIONS" and it will show the players you are currently in talks with.

From there, you are able to select one player you want to review as shown below

You will notice you have THREE options at this point

Increase Offer: Up the current contract offer you have on the table based on the current market value of the player as determined by the other teams bidding on the player.

Withdraw Offer: Pull your offer for the player completely at no penalty to you.

Wait It Out: Just as it says, keep your current offer on the table and wait it out.

During this phase, you will also be able to use whatever scouting points you have remaining in preparation for the Rookie Draft. This will be your LAST opportunity to use your points so don't forget to do so.

At this stage, we will have scheduled a Date/Time for the draft to be held somewhere in the estimated dates I've given above. The first thing you'll notice is that you can check out a Free Agency Recap to see what players went where and for how much, also a way to see if your bid won on any of the available players.

Madden 13 has stripped the commish of a lot of powers we had in Madden 12. For instance, I cannot change the draft timer for later rounds. So we are stuck with the times they give us. So on the night of the draft when we schedule it, you might just want to open up a few free hours for this or stay for as long as you can/want to.

After we run through one of these new drafts with the bulk of the league then I think we'll be able to form a more solid method for doing it in Season 2.

There WILL be a Live Chat for the draft which will be posted in the hours leading up to the draft. When you register/login to the chatroom, I'm going to ask that you keep your dumb names out of it and simply use your TEAM NAME (EAGLES, LIONS ETC.)

That way if someone would like to trade their upcoming pick, others can easily identify with who is who. So please, make this easy for the league and just enter the room with your TEAM NAME.

Trading of picks DURING the draft will be allowed for the beginning of the draft, if I notice its dragging the draft to a crawl and just making the process a pain in the ass, I reserve the right to nix all trading during the draft at that time. But we will give it a shot in this upcoming draft.

At the conclusion of the draft, you'll be able to review your rookie signings. Madden signs them automatically so this just allows you to see how much each pick will cost you.

Finally....at this point, we are ready for Season 4 preseason and games will begin once again!!!!

Still working through that....they may be without an owner for a bit. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the options at this point and am relatively convinced CPU teams are better for the league until I can find an owner I believe to be a good fit for our little league.

Still working through that....they may be without an owner for a bit. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the options at this point and am relatively convinced CPU teams are better for the league until I can find an owner I believe to be a good fit for our little league.